Body-brokering funeral home owner appeals 20-year sentence

DENVER (CN) — A funeral home owner asked the Tenth Circuit on Thursday to recalculate her double-decade sentence after she pleaded guilty to a federal crime related to brokering the body parts of deceased individuals brought to her for cremation.

Over the course of eight years, Megan Hess, the director of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado, and her mother Shirley Koch sold human remains brought in for funeral services to medical research companies for plasticization and study.

Incentivized with the offer of free or reduced cremation costs, some families consented to the sale of specific organs or tumors. According to a federal indictment however, few families consented to or knew the extent to which Hess and Koch were selling and profiting off their deceased loved ones.

Facing more than two dozen federal charges, Hess and Koch each pleaded guilty to a single charge of mail fraud in 2022. Senior U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello sentenced Hess to the maximum 20 years in prison and Koch to 15 years.

Hess appealed the George W. Bush-appointed judge's decision.

Before a three-judge panel, federal public defender Jacob Rasch-Chabot argued Arguello miscalculated Hess’ sentence by overestimating the victims’ losses. Medical research companies weren’t actually harmed by Hess’ sales, Rasch-Chabot said, since they received the body parts purchased. Arguello additionally erred in refusing to factor in services Hess actually provided, like the issuance of death certificates and flowers.

A more accurate calculation of loss, Rasch-Chabot said, would lower the sentencing range.

Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Murphy, appointed by Bill Clinton, challenged Rasch-Chabot’s deductions.

“They didn’t donate the remains and the remains were donated anyway, so they didn’t get the product they bought,” Murphy pressed. “Why would we say, ‘Well, you got a headstone so don’t complain?’”

Credits aren’t optional, Rasch-Chabot replied. The law requires credits be accounted for.

“The government didn’t dispute the calculation or the goods and services provided,” Rasch-Chabot said. “The only argument the government put forth, which the district court adopted, was a categorical denial because the business was systemically tainted by fraud, but just because a business is systemically tainted by fraud doesn’t mean clients didn’t receive any value.”

U.S. Circuit Judge Gregory Phillips, appointed by Barack Obama, pondered whether Hess didn’t deserve another roll of the dice.

“The district court was presented with evidence of the credits and the statute says you shall credit,” Phillips mused.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Ford Milani countered that Hess’ sentence would still reach 20 years even if Arguello had calculated it differently.

“This is a rare case where the court would have imposed the same sentence regardless, and the record shows that,” Milani said. “The funerals provided were so laden with fraud, they were essentially worthless.”

During the January 2023 sentencing hearing, Arguello admitted she found herself in uncharted territory, faced with a crime so disturbing and unusual. Widowed just a few years prior, Arguello shared her experience with loss and sympathized with the dozens of victims packed into her courtroom at the Wayne Aspinall Courthouse in Grand Junction.

In her written appeal, Hess therefore asked not only that her case be remanded, but also that she be assigned a different judge.

Although she did not request oral argument, Hess’ mother, Shirley Koch, is also appealing her sentence.

Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanie Seymour, a Jimmy Carter appointee, rounded out the panel. The judges did not say when or how they will decide the case.  

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